Marvell

Marvell have already shown us one new Android tablet reference design, the Marvell Moby, but the company have a second concept, the Moby MED which sounds a whole lot more interesting. Targeted at "telehealth" use, Marvell envisage the Moby MED as having "multiple simultaneous" LCD or e-paper displays, together with 1080p Full HD encode and decode, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and an integrated camera for web conferencing and remote diagnosis.

Tablets are back in style, no thanks to a little thing called the iPad, and there's nothing wrong with that. Sure, there's going to be all sorts of failures out there, but at least we can hope that the majority of these slate-style mini-computers will be worth our time. Take, for example, this 10-inch tablet that Marvell was showing off at the Future of Publishing Summit on Tuesday. It's running the Android mobile Operating System, which isn't that big of a surprise, and it's got a few features that make it seem worthwhile.

Even before you leave an event like Mobile World Congress 2010 you get used to people asking you what the most interesting or exciting thing you’ve seen at the show has been. This year, while there was no shortage of impressive hardware imminent to the market, the real promise for me was in next-gen chipsets. Texas Instruments, NVIDIA, Freescale, Marvell, Qualcomm and others had all brought their wares along to demo, and the promises – not to mention the step up from existing platforms – were flowing thick and fast. So, what sort of devices can we expect using these new chipsets?

Like the charming, fey uncle your grandmother warned you against showering with, Apple’s iPad has us confused. Tablets have broached the mainstream and, like CES 2010 last month, this past week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona saw several more companies show their hand. Each of the chipset companies we spoke to – Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Freescale, Marvell and others – included tablets among the target market for their ARM-based wares, and we played with various concepts, prototypes and mockups, many of which are destined for release within the next twelve months.

Remember Marvell's ARMADA 618 chipset from last Friday, the 1GHz low-power smartphone processor good for three separate, independent displays and Full HD 1080p quality? The company have brought along a few demo devices to MobileFocus 2010 this week, and they've been showing off just what the ARMADA 618 is capable of. Two demo stations were set up, one with a compact PMP-style device plugged, via HDMI, into a full-sized 1080p plasma TV, and another running a second, compact LCD panel.

Marvell have announced their latest strategy to corner both the high and the low end of the smartphone market. Up at the flagship end comes the Marvell ARMADA 618 [PDF link], a 1GHz ARM v7 Sheeva chipset with support for 1080p HD decode/encode together with 16-megapixel image processing and four simultaneous displays, while at the entry-level point is the Marvell Pantheon platform, a $99 smartphone design suitable for Android, Windows Mobile and other OS'.

Remember Marvell's third-gen Sheevaplug? The newest server-in-a-wall-wart made its debut at CES 2010 last month, adding WiFi and Bluetooth along with a faster, more capable chipset. As we saw before, the core Sheevaplug design often prompts some interesting third-party versions, and one such mini-server is Globalscale's GuruPlug Server Plus. It takes the basics of the Sheevaplug and throws in an eSATA port, a second gigabit ethernet port and a microSD card slot.

Skype did a great job of pushing VoIP into the mainstream, but if you've considered graduating up from their closed platform to a more open, flexible system such as the open-source Asterisk project then you may have found it all a bit intimidating. How about a straightforward VoIP system served up by a low-power, super-simple Marvell SheevaPlug instead? The PlugPBX project promises just that: a custom Asterisk/FreePBX VoIP build designed to drop straight onto a SheevaPlug.

The Entourage eDGe dual-display clamshell netbook is great, if you don't mind toting a rucksack all the time, but what if you'd prefer something a little more pocket-friendly? Tucked away at CES 2010 was Astri's E Ink ereader, an Android-based mini-me version of the eDGe with a 5-inch Wacom touchscreen epaper panel on the left and a 4.8-inch WVGA LCD touchscreen on the right.

The problem (well, one of them) with CES is that, while this year's show was a little smaller than in previous years, there's still no way you can work your way around every corner of every booth, make every press conference and see everything on offer. Happily chumby's incoming next-gen tablet was spotted by technabob, and they have all available details on the chumby sunfury too.

Along with the new Plug Computer 3.0, Marvell have also announced a new HD-capable chipset - the ARMADA 610 Application Processor - which promises a gigahertz-class CPU, Open GL ES 2.0 and 1.1 and Open VG support, full 1080p encode/decode and 3D graphics. Marvell reckon the ARMADA 610 will find its way into future MIDs, e-readers and other always-on portable devices, which will take advantage of the application processor's various connectivity options including HDMI and USB 2.0.

Marvell have announced a new version of their SheevaPlug always-on microserver, the Marvell Plug Computer 3.0. The compact computer now gets integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, rather than just wired ethernet connectivity, together with a built-in hard-drive of unspecified capacity; Marvell have also given it a faster CPU, in the shape of the 2GHz Armada 300 processor.